City. Reckon Green could 'a' had anythin' to do with it?'
'He dasn't show his face at the Twin Diamond, an' after helpin' to steal the herd he wouldn't be likely to hand 'em back to us.'
'That's so,' Turvey agreed. He did not know of the frame-up. 'He's in Hell City, I s'pose, an' cherishin' no feelin' of affection for us. Me, I'd ruttier he was danglin' from a tree. How in blazes he got away from three o' yu '
'Oh, can the chatter,' Steve said angrily. 'That trick o' shootin' out the light gave him a chance an' he took it. He's Jeff's man now an' that makes us safe from him.'
'Does it work both ways?' Turvey leered.
'I didn't say that,' was the reply.
The subject of their conversation cropped up again at supper. With the object of stirring up Frosty, one man asked his neighbour if he had seen any more of Green?
'No, nor I don't hanker to,' came the answer. 'Last timewas the night o' the raid an' he was pumpin' lead at me plenty eager.'
Frosty surveyed the rotund form of the speaker disdainfully. 'Couldn't 'a' bin him, he'd not miss a mark like yu with eyes shut,' he said.
'If it warn't him why did he skip?' the stout one argued. 'Would yu wait if the Ol' Man promised to stretch yore neck?'
The other hesitated; Keith's reputation for keeping his word was well established. 'It was his hoss,' he evaded.
'Mebbe, with another fella straddling it,' Frosty retorted Lagley cut in. 'Green told me hisself no one else could ride the black. He was as guilty as hell, an' yu know it.'
The cowboy stood up, his face suddenly stern. 'What yu mean, I know it?' he asked, and his voice had an edge. 'If yo're tryin' to rope me up with the rustlin', yu an' me'll have a ll'l argument, foreman or no.'
Lagley's gesture was one of impatience. 'I didn't mean nothin' o' the sort. Yu talk like a kid. Where's the sense gettin' sore over a cussed outlaw who oughta be swingin' in a loop?'
'He's my friend.'
'They say a fella is knowed by the company he mixes with,' Turvey sneered.
'If there was any truth in that yu'd be damned lonely,' Frosty snapped.
A black scowl was all the answer he received. Good tempered as he usually was, when the white-haired puncher went 'on the prod,' none of the outfit was anxious to get in his way.
* Silver was in a seventh heaven. Passing along the street, the woman Anita had smiled at him from the entrance to her abode, and, when he paused in sheer bewilderment, invited him to come in and talk with her.
'It is cool inside, and I am lonely,' she made excuse.
The experience was a novel one; usually members of the other sex shrank from him in fear or repulsion. This fact, of which he was bitterly conscious, rendered him painfully shy whenever a female was even in sight. Anita was not so beautiful as Belle Dalroy, but she was young and comely. For a moment he hesitated, glancing right and left. Was she playing a joke upon him? Well, if so, he had it in his power to make it an expensive amusement. The thought gave him courage, and he went in. The squalid place set him more at ease, and he perched himself on a stool.
'You like whisky?' she asked.
Silver did; it made him forget that he was not as other men. His small, deep-set eyes glittered as she poured out nearly a full glass, handed it to him, and sat down.
'Ain't you drinkin'?' he asked, and grinned when she said the spirit burned her throat. 'It don't hurt mine,' he boasted. 'The more it bites, the better I'm pleased.' He tilted the tumbler, absorbing half the contents at a gulp. 'That's the stuff; makes a man o' one. Try some.' He emptied the glass as he spoke and held it out. This time she filled it.
'I don't want to be a man,' she smiled. 'You are one already, important, a friend of the Chief.'
'Friend?' he repeated, and his expression was hardly one of affection. Then, 'So you reckon me a man--like the rest?'
'Not like the rest,' she said softly. 'You have the strength of three and--I admire strong men.'
Silver drank again and laughed coarsely. 'you shore picked a loser in Pedro.'
'True, he was weak,' she said carelessly, and he did notdetect the tremor in her voice. 'I had almost forgotten him. The Chief would not dare do that to you.'
The liquor and flattery were beginning to take effect. 'He threatens me,' he growled. 'Me, that could break him wlth my two hands, easy as snappin' a stick.'
His great paws rose in the air and dropped suddenly, portraying the act with such savage realism that the woman shivered. She was playing with something worse than fire, but she did not falter.
'He would not have you whipped,' she said quietly, 'but he might keep you shut up, as he does one other.'
'What you know o' that?'
'Nothing, save his existence, and that he is seen only by the Chief, and you, who take him food.'
'Why do you ask? Is this fella anythin' to you?' the dwarf asked thlckly.
She laughed at him. 'A man I've never seen? No, my friend, put it down to a woman's curioslty. Don't you like my whisky?'
She passed the bottle and he helped himself liberally. 'Best not meddle with what don't concern you,' he warned. His covetous eyes dwelt on her. 'You an' me'd make a good team,' he said. 'Allus wanted a woman o' my own.'
Anita shrugged. 'you travel too fast,' she replied. 'I'm not a dance-hall drab, and I'd never take up with one who wouldn't trust me completely.'
Silver was silent. He had to choose between a man who mocked him as a monstrosity and a woman who seemed blind to his physical defects and admired the one attribute on which he prided himself--his strength. In some such way his drink-bemused brain reasoned it out. He could take her, she was at his mercy, and since the passing of Pedro, she had no friends, but mere possession would not satisfy his craving; she must come to him willingly.
Inwardly trembling, but outwardly calm, the woman watched him as might a desperate gambler the spinning wheel which spelled riches or ruin. She saw the huge claw- like fingers open and reach for her.
'It's a bargain, girl,' Silver said, and breathed heavily. 'You an' me--'
She swayed back. 'You must have patience, amigo,' she murmured, but her smile was kind. 'Women like to be wooed, you know, and besides, you have not trusted me--yet. There is still some whisky; drink to our future.'
With a raucous chuckle of triumph, Silver clutched the bottle, drained and flung it to the floor. Anita knew that the act signified surrender, but she had the wisdom to wait. He bent towards her, and in a low rumble, like far distant thunder, said: 'There is a fella--I dunno who he is, but the Chief calls him his `ace in the hole,' an' he'd ruther lose an eye than let him go.'
'What's the poor devil done?'
'Ain't a notion, suthin' bad, likely.'
'His `ace in the hole,' ' Anita mused. 'That means he's saving him for some special purpose. I'd like to see this man; ake me with you one time, Silver.'
The massive shoulders shook with mirth. 'I ain't no wizard, glrl. To do that I'd have to get you through the Chief's room, there's no other way 'less yo're a bird,' Silver wheezed, and anxious to prove that she was asking the impossible, went on to explain that the captive was confined in a cavern below Satan's, and only to be reached by padlocked trap-doors. 'He keeps the keys hisself,' he finished.
Her face fell. 'But he goes away sometimes,' she urged.
'An' takes 'em with him,' was the reply. 'Mebbe he won't come back one time an' that hombre'll just starve.'
'A terrible death.'
Hell, we all gotta go, sooner or later, but you an' me'll have a good innin's first.'
He stood up, staggering a little on his stumpy legs, and made an awkward attempt to seize her. She evaded
